ANAHEIM, Calif. — There’s really no way to explain it. Hell, the guy at the center of it all, who looked so lost until he suddenly wasn’t, couldn’t wrap his mind around it, either.

“It just wasn’t going my way,” said Arizona guard Nick Johnson.

And then it was.

When it did, when the shots fell and the critical free throws drained one after the other in a 70-64 Sweet 16 victory over San Diego State, the improbable became the unthinkable. In all of two minutes and 44 seconds.

This is what March Madness is all about. Why every possession counts and every free throw counts and no matter how poorly you’ve played for 37 minutes and 16 seconds, you can make it all better when it matters most. No matter whether you’re 0-for-10 from the floor, you still want the ball.

There, standing in the middle of that small group of give-me-the-ball, is Johnson.

“Nick isn’t afraid of the moment,” said Arizona guard T.J. McConnell.

Not when Arizona needs a bucket, not when the Pac-12 Player of the Year is carrying around that 0-fer like a scarlet G(oat). You simply can’t shrink when that moment arrives.

So he drove to the basket with 2:44 to play and hit a running lay-in for his first field goal of the game. On the next possession, after SDSU had been playing a 1-3-1 zone with rangy wing Dwayne Polee harassing Johnson all game, the Aztecs switched to man out of a timeout.

Johnson recognized it, moved without the ball to get an open look and buried a 3. He then hit 10 straight free throws — each one more critical than the next — to get the top-seed Wildcats into Saturday’s Elite Eight against No. 2-seed Wisconsin.

”Early in his career, it’s not easy to put a bad half behind you,” said Arizona coach Sean Miller. “It’s amazing for a kid to do that after not making shots for 30 minutes. The willingness to take the shot and make it when things haven’t gone your way the entire game — especially in a game like this with such great meaning.”

This is what March looks like. Where nothing is overlooked and nothing is taken for granted and nothing is what it seems. Until it is.

How else can you explain this SDSU team, beaten badly by Arizona earlier this season in San Diego, outplaying the Wildcats for 35-plus minutes? How else can you explain the Aztecs getting one lousy bucket from star guard Xavier Thames in the final eight minutes of the game — after he had 23 points in the first 32 minutes — while Arizona finally figured it out and got back in the game?

How else can you explain a star guard, knowing that he got lost in three other games this season for Arizona — all three losses where he combined to shoot 10-of-46 from the field — and knowing it was happening again, yet having the confidence and fortitude to keep shooting?

“I just tried to stay with it,” Johnson said. “At that point, you’re not backing down.”

March doesn’t make heroes, everyone. March produces the stage that allows players to become heroes.